Cam Boyd Blog

Image © http://www.exploresteamboat.com/winners/

Every year, the Steamboat Pilot and At Home Magazine put on a compitition for locals (or those that get the email memo) to vote for their favorite retail shops, dining experiences, hikes, bike runs, ski runs, and even real estate agencies!

This year, Prudential proudly took first place as the "Best Real Estate Agency in the Boat." Did you know that Prudential has been in the Valley since 1988? We work hard to serve the community, and are honored to have the community vote for us!

Check out the other winners from "Best of the Boat," and let us know what you think!

Kathy Arce from Bank of America sent us this great pamphlet about mortgage rates! Take a look!

After Friday's approval from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, Colorado Mountain College is one step closer to offering bachelors' degrees locally. The pursuit for 4-year programs began in November 2009, and CMC is slowly making progress towards fulfilling demands for higher education in Steamboat.  

For Steamboat, this is a golden torch for our education program. In addition to being able to take college courses at an earlier age, locla kids will benifit from the school's degree programs by being able to pursue higher ranking degrees locally for cheaper costs than other in-state colleges. Not only is this an asset for kids growing up here, but also for the community as it will draw in a different demographic of college atendees than we have formerly seen.

In the past, the college only offered associates degrees. Local kids jokingly referred to the school as  "Harvard on the Hill" and used it's (comparatively) cheaper courses to fulfill prerequisites to get into colleges offering bachelor programs and more prestigious titles. "Harvard on the Hill" was known for three things; a jump start for getting into the 4-year program of choice at a different school, a great place to take classes like Yoga or Painting during the winter seasons, and a place to go to school on the side of your real job; skiing.

It seems though, that the Alpine Campus of CMC is taking steps to dismiss these former presumptions, and is working hard with the 11 other Colorado Mountain Colleges to really push for bachelor programs and earn itself both better standing in the community and compete with other public colleges. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education approved 5 programs for CMC campuses; Steamboat will see two of them as early as next fall. The planned degrees will be a Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability Studies (which works great in Steamboat), and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. The latter is such a popular degree for Generation Y that the school and community will no doubt benefit from its instillation, as will the minds of younger generations who hope to enjoy school alongside their skiing pursuits in Steamboat Colorado.

Read the Steamboat Pilot's article for more information.

This past week was Blues Break for the Steamboat School district and we tried to pack in as much as we could.  Saturday started out with a 40 Kilometer Nordic Race at the Lake Catamount Touring Center (Read the article). The growth in Nordic Skiing in Steamboat is pretty dramatic and it is especially noticeable in the number of children that are in the race events and the Nordic program with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.

From there we were off to Moab for 3 days of hiking and biking in the desert.  Back to Steamboat on Thursday to sell some real estate.   Then, Friday was a day of powder skiing with Steamboat Powdercats where we were thigh deep in fluff all day.

Mountain Biking in Moab

Gobblin Valley

Family at Gobblin Valley

Saturday, my son, Bridger and I drove to Arapahoe Basin for his freestyle competition.  On the drive that morning we saw herds of deer, elk, antelope and a huge Golden Eagle feasting on a recent roadkill. Bridger placed 1^st in his age group and place 1^st overall among 100 skiers.  Sunday was the dual competition with another good showing at 4^th place. (watch the video.)

There’s never a dull time in Steamboat, especially in the heart of the season.

You've been seeing these funny little squares pop up in our ads and on our flyers. What are they? I decided it's time to do some explaining, because soon all of our listings will have these nifty little codes. Prudential is a progressive, one-step-ahead kind of agency, and we want your listings to be easily accessible! Soon these QR codes will be on flyer boxes attached to our listing signs so that drivers can easily scan the codes for information! Still confused? Read on....

What is a QR Code?

 Technology is moving fast these days, and Smart phones are gaining new capabilities quickly! Much like in a grocery store where a bar code scanner reads the bar code on your food items and relays a price, a smart phone (Blackberry, Droid, Iphone etc) now has the capability of taking a photo of these square boxes and ‘scanning’ them for information. What kind of information do they get? Essentially, when the code is scanned, the user is taken to a personalized website where they will see all the information about your listing with a description, price,  and even photos!

Why are we making the move to use QR codes?

SNOW! Ever see a listing you were interested in, but decided not to climb the ten foot snowbank to uncover the flyer box and retrieve a soggy flyer? We don’t want to lose potential leads because of our winter weather. With the use of QR codes attached to the flyer boxes, drivers can get listing information without leaving their cars! Don’t worry, flyers will still be available, as well as the “text for information” option for those without smart phones. These codes will soon show up in our paper advertising as well, so that when someone likes your listing, they can scan the code and automatically save it to their phone, no pen and paper necessary!

How can I use the QR Codes from my phone?

You have to have a smartphone to be able to scan the QR Codes. Simply search “QR code scanner” and download a program to read them. Then take a photo of the codes, and let your phone do the work! If you don’t have a smart phone, you can also get  information by text message.

I Don't want anyone to have my phone information!

We respect your privacy! Whereas text messages to us do relay your phone information to us (Because we need it to text you back with photos and listing information), the QR code is a great, hassle free way to get info! If you do choose to scan one of our listings, you get all the info and keep your private information. At the end of the day, we simply get a number that tells us how many people have scanned our codes so we can see if they are useful. We won't see your personal information because it simply links you to a website, so you aren't traceable! If you don't have a smart phone and do choose to use the texting service, don't worry, we're still on the other end, and if you don't want to reply to us, you don't have to!

Still have questions? Informally chat with us!

Still have questions? Feel Free to contact us! Something else new to our website; we have a great Chat bar down below! Again, a hassel free way to get information. Your questions will be either answered by Steph or Cam, so you will get professional, real time answers. We're happy to answer any of your questions, and you aren't required to provide any of your personal information to us to use our chat feature! If we aren't online, the new feature will send us an email, and we will reply directly to your inbox (in this case, your email address is needed.) Give it a try!

For those of you that aren't fans of us on Facebook, find us! Why? We set up a great new site that gives you the ease of getting updates on Facebook, and even lets you search our listings. We're calling it our "Facebook Facelift" because we now have a site within Facebook, that is customized and all our own. Out with the boring old Facebook, in with the new!

 Check it out by searching Cam Boyd, Prudential Steamboat Realty, or by clicking below. If you are already a fan of our page, just click "My Site" in the menu beneath our Profile picture.

Rock climbing is one of my favorite sports; a climber has to balance delicately, search for their holds, and then combine finesse and strength to work their way up the route. Last night, I experienced my first ice climbing training with a group of friends up at Fish Creek Falls from 5-10pm last night. To be honest, I have always been a little scared to try ice climbing because you aren't actually holding onto the ice; you're trusting your tools. Also, I never liked the idea of your holds coming off. (This is why I avoid sandstone in the rock climbing world.)

However, ice climbing was more similar to rock climbing than i thought it would be; we still tied a figure "8" knot from our ropes to our harnesses, checked to be sure that everyone was in a safe position, and were generally moving in an upward direction up a challenging face. Differences were that as the belayer, you were feeding a rope with massive mittens on, and as the climber you had to make sure to hang on to your ice picks, both because those are the tools helping you to stay on the wall, and also for the safety of your belayer down below. Instead of yelling "Rock!" when a chunk of the wall falls, you yell "Ice!". (I asked if I should yell "Extremely sharp falling tool!" should I drop my ice picks, but I was told simply DO NOT drop them.) And instead of getting stuck on a tricky part of a rock climb where you struggle and gasp for breath and cling to the tiny holds that you do have, you simply start swinging your axes, show that ice who's boss, and make your own holds when you picks are able to dig into the ice.

   First climb of the night! He is showing off by doing a "French" move because he only has one ice pick. ©roryclow.com

The climbs are snow and ice. Fish Creek Falls is a great place to give climbing a go! ©roryclow.com

Looking down from halfway up. (That dog is a pretty good climber, she's partway up too!) ©roryclow.com

Really, it was a fascinating, AMAZING sport. My only note is that after receiving a sharp chunk of ice between the eyes, I would have really liked to have had safety glasses. Oh, and beware of your crampons on your feet; I learned the hard way when I fell (walking) and received a very sharp crampon underneath me, as well as a tear in my pants.

Our Feet with all of our gear ©roryclow.com

For those of you that want to try your hand at ice-climbing (in the daylight), give Rocky Mountain Ventures a call. They have great guides, and with a 4 hour trip, you can definitely get multiple climbs in.

Rory Clow, The Boyd Team

Despite very little fresh snow fall this week, I can still tell you that the backcountry is holding onto it's powder, and if you know where to look, there are ample amounts of it!

This week was a quiet weekend; no 10 mile trekking in search of powder like last weekend. Normally, my 'crew' is a group of 4; including two girls and two guys, which makes for a well balanced group that both pushes each other to excel but also keeps the group tempered with better decision making skills. Sunday, it was just two of us as our other two members are out of the country.

We found a great place to ski off of Rabbit Ears pass that we affectionately named "Walton's Wedgie" due to the closest landmark being Walton's Creek and the steep chutes we were skiing that twice had me wedged between two rocks or a rock and a tree. (It's always slightly embarrassing to have a new backcountry run named after you.)

We started our morning by tying a 40 meter climbing rope (cut down for skiing) around my waist, and anchoring me to my ski partner, who braced himself on the other side of an incline and a tree. I then proceeded to hesitantly walk out onto a cornice. Why, you ask? Because if you can safely release a couple hundred pound cornice, you get an idea about two things; 1- how easily it released gives you an idea as to the layers of dangerous snow underneath, and 2, if it falls and doesn't cause the slope below to slide, chances are its a safe ski since the cornice outweighs any fall you would take.  Luckily, I had to struggle quite a bit to get anything to move. (Part of me is very glad; I have never been the "tester" before and I don't think I would have enjoyed falling 15 feet and getting bruised ribs out of it). The slopes we found were pretty darn stable, which is a great thing!

We had an amazing day, and I was able to push myself quite a bit. I'm getting back into skiing (I've been a snowboarder for ten some years, so I'm trying to get my feet back under me for skis.) Here's something you can laugh at. First you will see my ski partner Dalton hucking a pretty big rock that stood around 15-20 feet high, and then you can see me be quite a pansy and nicely rolling off of a small, 8 foot rock (you can't see the landing for either, in fact, you can't even see the rock Dalton is jumping off of there is so much snow):

©Rory B. Clow and roryclow.com

Pretty amusing, but I'll eventually get a little more skill (and air) under my feet!

Remember to always check the avalanche snow report provided by CAIC and test the snow before you go out. Sadly, Meeker lost a snowmobiler on Sunday to a very large 300'wx400' L x25' deep slide that buried both rider and sled. It is a scary reminder about the risks we take to have fun out there.

Rory Clow

Here’s a sight you don’t see every day. A brightly colored sail flying over the Stagecoach Reservoir above those ice fishing and sledding. I’m not even sure what you call it, but my guess is kite skiing. Has anyone tried this before? If so, let us know about the experience…and if it’s really called kite skiing.

Steph Fairchild

Well Cam tried ski biking in December, and I had my trial run this month. What a great way to see the mountain! It was another one of those afternoons – just a few hours to hit the slopes while the sun was shining. So I met up with my husband and 2 of our friends. It was a blast! You can really go fast if you want to, and I heard myself giggling as I was enjoying the experience. If you want a new way to see the mountain – especially if your legs are tired – you should check out the ski bikes. You can rent them right next to the ticket window, or right across the street at the shops in the Steamboat Grand.

Steph Fairchild